safe and sound | israel 2013

Saturday, March 2, 2013

hello hello hello!

we are here. we are tired. we are awake. we are confused about what day and time it is. we are excited.

we left IWU at 8:30am yesterday (friday), and we arrived in tel aviv at 2:15pm today (saturday). so according to my calculations, that's about 23 hours of straight traveling. i've had the same clothes on for almost 48 hours and i don't even care. i cannot be held responsible if this blog doesn't make any senese.

the trip has gone pretty smoothly so far. there was a minute of stress when my name was spelled wrong on my boarding pass. that ended up working out. we had a 5 hour lay over in new york at JFK. obviously we got manicures during that time. around 8:15pm last night we started boarding the flight. we had to go through a second security check point because israel is crazy strict. i was sort of freaking out because i was so nervous, but i was fine once i got on the plane. which was huge. it was 10 seats across and 395739853028 hundred seats long. it had an upstairs. they gave us food. it wasn't gross. there were tons of movies to pick from. it was better than netflix. and there was loads of good music. since the flight is overnight, pretty much everyone sleeps. morgan, alex, and i waited until after dinner to take our melatonin. brilliant in theory, except for it didn't make me sleepy at all. at one point i almost started crying cause i couldn't fall asleep. dramatic, i know. but i ended up being able to sleep the last couple hours of the flight and woke up to breakfast. i finally used the bathroom on a plane for the first time. it wasn't awful. i hate how long this paragraph is, so i'm just gonna post some pictures.

today we went to joppa. but now it's called jaffa. i think. we were at the port that jonah left from when he was running away from God. naughty boy.

meet alex and morgan. they are sisters and they are precious. i sat with them on the plane. it was wonderful. except for the whole crying part.

meet dr. wilbur williams. the smartest man in the world. i swear he knows the history of every rock in israel. he is precious. and wise. and wonderful.

there are a gazillion stray cats. i'm not mad.

this is a potter's house. he is always closed cause he isn't into the tourist thing. this is also said to be the place where peter had that vision of the sheet coming down with all the animals on it. there are some places where we can know exactly where something happened and other places where it isn't quite as clear. but wilbur says that it is important to remember that it is more about what happened than where it happened.

alex. sweet girl.

uh, hey mom? i'm moving here. this is the mediterranean sea. it was beautiful. our hotel is actually overlooking the sea as well. love. love. love.

all the buildings are beautfiul.

i want to live in them.

and they have beautiful things to buy. that's gonna be a problem.

alex and i are twins. well our outfits are matching at least.

so yep. that is day 1 and 2. we just had the most delicious meal of my life. it's only 8:30pm and i am about to fall asleep. i'll probably wake up at 3am hungry for dinner. i can't wait.

tomorrow we are off to a bunch of places i can't pronounce. it's supposed to be 77 degrees. i'm so excited.

i'll be back with more tomorrow!

shalom!

ko.

EDIT: per my mother's request, i would like to give you details on dinner. we had a giant layout of food to choose from. there was 5-6 bowls of chilled vegetables with tasty herbs and stuff on them like carrots, tomatoes, and other stuff. there was several things of sautéed vegetables, too. like zucchini squash, and potatoes. there was a bunch of meat that i was too scared to eat. there was rice. there was fresh bread and the best hummus i've ever had. there was also a bunch of stuff that i didn't recognize. i didn't really eat that. :) and then there was really yummy chocolate mousse-ish dessert. so. good.